The progress made by African
Americans in the 1950s and early 1960s at achieving their civil rights
was compromised by violence. Frankly, many young blacks rejected the courage
and patience displayed by Dr. Martin Luther King in his non-violent response
to injustice in American society.

The epitome of the Black
Power Movement was the Black Panther Party. Founded by Huey P. Newton,
Bobby Seale and others, this party justified the use of violence in the
accomplishment of black justice. Newton and Seale were harassed by police
and Newton was convicted of killing a policeman.

The movement stimulated
a number of other blacks to speak out. In 1968, Black Panther Eldridge
Cleaver wrote his best selling autobiography, Soul on Ice and the poet
Amira Baraka published an anthology of protest writing called Black Fire.
And in 1970, Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton wrote Black Power,
the book that defined the movement.

Protest during these years
extended to sports as well as writing. In 1967, Heavyweight champion Muhammad
Ali refused induction into the armed forces on both religious and political
grounds. The next year, John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their gloved
fists in a black power salute from the victory stand at the Olympic Games
in Mexico City. And two years after that, Curt Flood challenged the reserve
clause in professional baseball eventually changing the nature of the
sport.

A new generation of black
political figures emerged during the 1970s. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm
ran for president in 1972 and Congresswoman Barbara Jordan spoke with
eloquence during the Watergate hearings

Benjamin Hooks replaced
Roy Wilkins as the head of the NAACP and Andrew Young is elected mayor
of Atlanta. Finally, in 1983, the Reverend Jesse Jackson announced his
intention to make the first serious attempt by an African American to
win the Democratic nomination for president. The torch had been passed
to a new generation of leaders.